All posts tagged ‘Opimist’

Sometime in the future, you are going to die. Depending on how old you are at the moment, I might be right there with you, wherever we go (if anywhere) when we die. But this isn’t a conversation about what happens after we die, because that would take a tome of arguments and beliefs to even think about coming to some sort of agreement. Rather, this is a conversation of what happens before you die — specifically, keeping yourself from dying. The Optimist’s Tour of the Future takes a long journey around the world, delving into the most radical and outlying theories on prolonging life, the future of the Earth and technology, and even climate change. Author Mark Stevenson is hopeful for the future of humanity, but admits (and readily researches) that a lot of things need to happen proactively for humanity to have a chance going into the unknown.

The Optimist’s Tour of the Future tosses you right into the fray with talk of “transhumanism.” Basically, transhumanism is a movement, a theory, that seeks to prolong our life here on Earth utilizing modern gains in technology in order for us to fight aging and live forever. It’s a very interesting theory, with a lot of plot holes. For instance, in one section Stevenson went to talk to a group of intellectuals who don’t believe that transhumanism might be possible, but that it is (or soon will be) and are planning as such. He noted they were all smoking after a lecture, the reason being is that most of them believe that all their problems will be fixed when it comes to merging technology and humanity. Of course, they might want to start saving for those new lungs now. As evidenced in the sci-fi/fantasty Repo Men, new organs aren’t cheap. That was fiction, but at this point, so is transhumanism. Continue Reading “GeekDad Book Review: The Optimist’s Tour of the Future” »